In the final assembly of vehicles, it is necessary, for example, to position and to orient those components and assemblies which form the surface of the vehicle relative to one another. Said operation is called adjustment and takes place in the case of many joining operations along the entire value chain of the vehicle.
There are assemblies, for example illumination apparatuses, which become a constituent part of the surface of the vehicle. An illumination apparatus of this type can be, for example, a headlight assembly or a tail light which is arranged in a receiving section of the surface of the vehicle during the assembly. The aim here is to maintain narrow tolerances, inter alia with regard to gap sizes between the headlight assembly or tail light and adjoining trim parts of the surface of the vehicle. There are also narrow tolerances here in terms of the completion of the surface of the vehicle by way of the surface of the headlight assembly or tail light. An excessively great offset would lead to a discernible step here within the surface of the vehicle.
A wide variety of technical solutions which fulfill the above-described requirements are already known to a person skilled in the art. It is thus known, for example, to arrange the illumination apparatus in the receiving section of the surface of the vehicle and to fasten the illumination apparatus to a structural part of the vehicle. For example, one or more adjustment elements which hold the illumination apparatus at a spacing from the surface of the vehicle at defined points can then be provided for the subsequent adjustment. By way of the setting of the adjustment elements, the illumination apparatus can then be moved relative to the surface of the vehicle until the desired adjustment state is established.
It is necessary here that the adjustment elements bear against the structural part of the vehicle at the defined points in order to support the illumination apparatus. It proves problematic that local damage of the structural part frequently occurs at said points on account of the permanent introduction of force and the resulting continuous loading of said structural part. Corrosion effects occur here as an undesired result, which corrosion effects can be attributed for example to damage of a protective paint surface which is applied on the structural part.
DE 87 13 935 U1 discloses an apparatus for the adjustable connection of a vehicle headlight with a supporting part. Said apparatus has a holding flange which can be introduced into a cutout of the supporting wall.
Furthermore, DE 199 26 842 A1 discloses a vehicle light with an adjustable fastening means. Here, a threaded bolt is guided through a bore in a vehicle body and can thus hold the vehicle light at a spacing from the vehicle body.
Furthermore, EP 0 393 353 A1 describes a headlight for vehicles. A reflector of the headlight is connected adjustably to a receiving part. The connection to the receiving part is established via two connecting parts which are introduced in each case into a bore of the receiving part and are fastened in the latter as a result.
DE 101 21 114 A1 describes a vehicle light with an adjustable fastening means. Here, the adjustability is provided via a threaded bolt which can bear against a vehicle structure in the direction of the adjustability.
DE 20 2007 016 945 U1 describes a further adjusting element for positionably fastening a component, for example a vehicle light, in three-dimensional space.
Finally, DE 20 2005 008 060 U1 discloses a fastening arrangement for adjustably fastening a housing part to a carrier part with the possibility of a compensation of tolerances. The arrangement comprises a sleeve and a bolt-shaped fastening element which can be screwed into the sleeve. Furthermore, the arrangement has a housing part with ribs, into which a head of the sleeve is latched, and in the case of which the sleeve and the housing part form a rigid combination in the longitudinal direction.